Implications of Owen Arthur’s Loss

[Historian]

Former prime minister Owen Arthur’s defeat in Barbados’ general elections this week has to be seen as a setback to the CARICOM and CSME efforts. This, at least, is my strong opinion.

There is no question in my mind that Arthur was the most visionary and determined of all Caribbean leaders to forge ahead with the idea of a CSME. He, more than any other, was a genuine regionalist! Of course, others like former Jamaican PM P.J. Patterson and St. Vincent & the Grenadines’ prime minister Dr. Ralph Gonsalves were/are also sincere in their efforts to make CSME and the free movement of professionals among CARICOM countries a reality.

A clear picture is emerging today from Caribbean and other economies. As the economic climate gets gradually worse, national leaders are being/will be forced to look at the harsh reality of employing immigrant workers versus their own citizens. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to predict what will inevitably happen. In fact, already the doors are being slowly closed in Barbados and several other regional states.

This is why the following suggestion byJamaica’s Trevor Hamilton is, at the present time, not the best of ideas, and it is one fraught with unknowns. I’vecopied it from the Sunday Gleaner, November 11, 2001.
(http://jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/2...us/focus1.html )

Globalising and industrialising Jamaican education



Trevor Hamilton, Contributor

THE export of trained Jamaicans, including teachers, is an excellent strategy to optimise return to human capital, enhance economic stability and growth, accelerate Jamaica's positioning in globalisation and create opportunities for the Jamaican Ministry of Education to have a rationalised mix of teaching resources.

Read more: http://jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/2...us/focus1.html

[Gamma]

Hope yuh tenure not in jeopardy!

[Historian]

Much Greater Issues Involved

Hope yuh tenure not in jeopardy!

Gamma, this is not about individuals, though . It is about a movement (regional integration) that I once believed in, but no longer do. But, as far as the matter of tenure in Barbados is concerned, Guyanese nationals, even more than Jamaicans, have much to worry about when one considers the results of last Thursday’s elections. Simply put, Prime Minister Freundel Stuart is a strict nationalist while Owen Arthur is an avid regionalist.

But why did I start this thread? I did so because there are some Jamaicans who have put forth the rather unwise view that Jamaica should train professionals for the international market; in other words, train young professionals not for the task of building Jamaica, but for export in order to, I assume, increase the flow of remittances to Jamaica. This argument, of course, is an excuse for our continued failure to create employment for our own people after many decades of independence.

But back to Barbados and the implications of last Thursday’s general elections results. If I’m not mistaken, the CSME was born at a special CARICOM meeting in Grenada way back in 1989, but today, just like the 1958 West Indies Federation, both the CSME and CARICOM have gone down the road to absolutely nowhere.

I have always had a personal admiration for Owen Arthur, as I considered him (I still do) to be the leading and most enthusiastic statesman for regional integration, much like my personal Jamaican hero Norman Washington Manley. However, Caribbean people, unfortunately, continue to be polarized by distrust and prejudice and insularity, hence the continued failure of CARICOM, the CSME and the CCJ.